Axios

Wall Street's biggest players are riding high on a wave of investment banking fees, trading revenue and AI-linked debt deals.

Why it matters: The steady deal flow reflects a vibrant pulse for an industry that greases the wheels of the U.S. economy.

Forget chatbots — SAP has developed an enterprise AI model that speaks spreadsheet.

SAP Chief Technology Officer Philipp Herzig breaks down how SAP-RPT-1 — a table-native foundation model — is redefining enterprise AI. Unlike traditional LLMs trained on internet text, SAP-RPT-1 is built from the ground up to understand structured business data like ledgers and invoices. Herzig explains how the model reduces errors, accelerates predictions and enables teams to act on insights without retraining.

Spotify is raising the price of a premium subscription to $13 a month from $12 in the U.S.

The big picture: Rising streaming prices are contributing to Americans' affordability headache, and this adds another one to the pile.

President Trump's threat to deploy federal troops to Minneapolis comes as the city is already in turmoil, with daily demonstrations, school disruptions, and fear running through immigrant communities and beyond amid the government's immigration crackdown.

Why it matters: The unprecedented ICE surge has the hallmarks of an occupation in some neighborhoods, as masked and heavily armed agents drive around in large SUVs, tussle with protesters and observers, and break into people's cars and houses to make arrests.

President Trump on Thursday threatened to deploy U.S. military forces under the Insurrection Act to Minneapolis if state officials don't stop protests against the sprawling immigration enforcement operation.

Why it matters: Every modern use of the Insurrection Act has come either at a governor's request or to expand civil rights protections over state objections. Trump would flip that script, sending troops against a governor's wishes to crush protests of the federal government's own actions.

• The situation has grown increasingly tense amid a surge in ICE activity and last week's fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

Jen Easterly, the head of the nation's top cyber agency during the Biden administration, will now head up the RSAC Conference, one of the world's biggest gatherings of cyber professionals.

Why it matters: Easterly has gathered quite a following as a public speaker, startup adviser and cybersecurity intelligence official in her decades of service. That energy will breathe new life into the decades-old gathering.

Companies with the strongest reputations earn nearly 5% more in unexpected shareholder returns than their counterparts, according to a new analysis by Burson.

Why it matters: Placing a dollar value on reputation underscores how communications can affect business performance, proving that public perception is more than just a soft metric.

ICE raided a Meta data center in Louisiana, putting President Trump's immigration crackdown at odds with his goal of American AI dominance.

Why it matters: The administration, with the ultimate goal of beating China in the AI race, wants a friendly environment for tech companies looking to build AI infrastructure and fill labor shortages.

This has been a hard couple of years for people starting their careers, with the unemployment rate among young adults skyrocketing. It could be early evidence of AI reshaping the job market — after all, the bots are already quite good at tasks often assigned to entry-level office workers.

• Not so fast. The timing and details of the jobs slump tell a more routine macroeconomic story.

Starbucks and Dunkin' are both tapping star power to help sell their newest drinks.

Why it matters: Celebrity collabs aren't new — but the names are changing. As consumer attention splinters, brands are betting that creators with loyal, highly engaged fan bases will drive real-world purchases.

Microsoft will offer free AI training and premium software to educators and college students starting Thursday, Microsoft Elevate president Justin Spelhaug told Axios.

Why it matters: Access to premium AI tools and training is shaping up to be the next digital divide.

A conversation with Dan Beck, General Manager and Chief Product Officer at SAP SuccessFactors.

1. How is SAP reimagining the role of AI in HR — and what's your vision for building a future-ready, skills-first workforce?

Samsung wants to put mobile AI into the hands of millions more people — whether they buy the company's pricey foldables or its entry-level phones, a top executive told Axios.

Why it matters: The company aims to double the number of AI-equipped Samsung smartphones to more than 800 million by the end of 2026.

Young people who are anxious about their jobs in an AI future are hedging that by investing in the stock market, according to a study by the Oliver Wyman Forum of 300,000 investors since 2020.

Why it matters: Young investors often favor vibes and momentum over fundamentals — so they could get burned if this bull market stumbles.

Amazon is the inaugural buyer of copper cathode that mining giant Rio Tinto is producing with a special process it calls way more climate-friendly than traditional methods.

Why it matters: Data centers need lots of copper, and tech giants are looking to make powerful computing more sustainable as the AI boom complicates their climate goals.

There's little evidence AI is destroying large numbers of white-collar jobs today. But five developments show the potential for massive future job and workplace disruption.

Chipmaker Nvidia is joining the list of investors backing Harmonic, a startup focused on AI systems designed to solve mathematical problems.

Why it matters: Large language models are doing increasingly well in math contests, but Harmonic says there's still a big market for AI systems that can formally verify the accuracy of their results.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers will introduce new legislation Thursday to establish a $2.5 billion "Strategic Resilience Reserve" (SRR) for critical minerals, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: President Trump is bringing his prospector's pick to nearly every corner of the globe — including Ukraine, Venezuela and Greenland — in a push to boost the U.S. supply of minerals that are critical to the tech industry's growth.

Christmas Day shattered historic streaming records, according to new Nielsen data shared exclusively with Axios.

Why it matters: Streaming accounted for more than half (54%) of all TV viewing in the U.S. on Christmas, marking only the second time in history that streaming has surpassed 50% total viewership in a single day.

Instead of putting people out of work, AI is mostly helping them do their jobs, finds a new study from Anthropic, the maker of Claude, an AI model popular among software coders.

Why it matters: The new edition of the Anthropic Economic Index lands amid a heated debate over whether AI will ultimately eliminate jobs or create new ones.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched its fastest-ever legal campaign against President Trump in his first year, filing challenges at a pace that could double those in his first term, according to an analysis first shared with Axios.

Why it matters: Trump is using executive power at historic speed and scale, and the ACLU has again emerged as his most persistent institutional check.

The share of Americans who see business as the country's biggest threat, compared with government and labor, is near a high last reached more than two decades ago, when accounting scandals rocked the corporate world.

Why it matters: Gallup has been polling on this question since the 1960s, and, although big government always ranks as Americans' top perceived threat, distrust of companies has been steadily rising.